Big Sur

A long-awaited ribbon cutting tomorrow will mark the opening of the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. The bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur has been closed for eight months after winter storms damaged it beyond repair. This literally divided the community.

Joe Erwin and I stand on land that didn’t exist before the Mud Creek Slide. The ocean is at our backs. In front of us, a semi-truck hauling enormous boulders makes its way down an access road carved into this new hillside.

“You know when you first see it you are overwhelmed by how big it is. And you think what can we possible do,” says Joe Erwin, Project Manager with CalTrans.

Areas of Big Sur that have been nearly impossible to access are opening up. Adding to the growing list of businesses and State Parks, you can now visit the Esalen Institute. It reopened Friday after the longest closure in its history.

Most mornings and afternoons, a newly built footpath that plunges through a grove of towering redwoods is clogged with workers and schoolchildren.

That hiking trail is a lifeline. It circumnavigates a bridge on the Pacific Coast Highway that has been closed since February, after it collapsed from rain and mudslides. Without that path, much of the village of Big Sur would be cut off from the outside world.

At the Big Sur River Inn, outdoor umbrellas and dining tables sit on the decks waiting for visitors. It’s spring break, a time of year when the restaurant would normally be busy and the rooms here booked. But both are virtually empty.